Aleria's Adventures

  NOAA warned that the 2025 hurricane season in the North Atlantic was set to be above average in activity. In reality, it was much more benign until Melissa. Hurricane Melissa intensified from a Tropical Storm to a strong Category 5 monster Hurricane Melissa's centre is located approximately 30 miles southeast of Negril, Jamaica, or near Black River, and is moving north-northeast at 9 mph. With hurricane-force winds extending up to 30 miles from the centre, that means the eyewall with the most intense winds is arriving in western Jamaica. The eye is also now coming ashore. Its maximum winds have increased to 185 mph, with a pressure now at 892 millibars, as measured by a morning Hurricane Hunter mission. This places it tied with the Labor Day storm in 1935 for the third most intense Atlantic Basin hurricane of all time based on pressure. The storm is tied for the second strongest storm based on winds, only behind Allen in 1980. It's winds are stronger than Katrina's at lan...

  Grant, Alex, Helen, Brigitte and Gordon at the dock in Rostuohey British-flagged yacht Louise , a 60-ft sloop with lifting keel, aboard which were OCC members Grant and Brigitte Gordon and Gordon and Helen MacKenzie, came into Clew Bay for a visit on the 21st of July.  They opted to anchor in deeper water rather than use our ooring. They decided to stop in and see us on their sail down the west coast after seeing a news item about us in the OCC Newsletter.  We did the usual things, dinner in Westport and a pint at Matt Molloys. The conversation led us to realise we had a good deal in common. Gordon had been in the music business, and Helen had worked for Island Records, owned by Alex's stepbrother. Grant's father had had an apartment on Washington Square in NYC when I was at NYU, living in the dorm at 5th Avenue and 10th Street. Small world! We really liked them and enjoyed their company. Despite the brief visit of one night, it was a memorable encounter, as often happe...

  Aleria is still in Kilrush with no end date in sight. So we plod along in Westport with our houses, vineyard, donkeys and cats. And then we got a call from Reg Barker, OCC Vice Commodore. He and Nikki were making their way up the West Coast en route to the CCA Rally in Scotland; could they stop by? Well, of course.  We met them out by Inishoe in Moytura and piloted Blue Velvet in. It was hot and humid, flat calm. What followed was three delightful days with the couple, now the best of friends. We showed them the vineyard and introduced the donkeys. We had dinner in town, at Sage of course, followed by an amazing trad session at Matt Molloys. The next day was brilliant blue sky, and again flat calm, so they climbed Croagh Patrick while I prepared a leg of lamb feast.  Meanwhile, WIORA was underway at the Sailing Club and MSC was celebrating its 50th anniversary, but we had to miss everything because we had committed to attending Tomas Horkan's 60th birthday celebration...

The 2025 Hurricane Season gets underway this Sunday with June's arrival. The season in both the Atlantic Basin and eastern and central Pacific runs through the end of November and is given a 60% chance by NOAA of being a more active than average season across the Atlantic basin, which includes the Gulf of Mexico (aka America) and Caribbean -- but a 50% chance of a normal season in the eastern and central Pacific.  Here's a link to the NOAA release on the 2025 hurricane season and a more technical description of the 2025 Atlantic Hurricane Season forecast from NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.  This is a link to the discussion of the 2025 Central Pacific hurricane season. The Eastern Pacific has already seen the formation of the first tropical storm named Alvin, which is heading for Baja but is expected to dissipate in three days. For monitoring of the East Pacific hurricane potential, follow this link .  NOAA will be issuing  updates to the coming season's tropic...

  Crossing oceans on a small sailboat is not for everyone. As I was home alone and reading about AI, I started wondering what AI would say about the pursuit. Alex was down in Kilrush working on Aleria. Her mast has been pulled and he was removing all the winches. She's having a bit of a refit.  As I was thinking about it, I happened upon a notice that Google AI, formerly called Gemini, is now called DeepMind. I decided to test its intelligence by asking a simple but complex question. This is the response to the question, "Why do people sail across oceans on small boats?" Google AI, formerly Gemini now DeepMind Why do people sail across oceans in small boats? People sail across oceans in small boats for a variety of reasons, often driven by a combination of personal motivations and the allure of the sea. Here are some of the most common factors: • Challenge and Adventure: Ocean sailing, especially in a small boat, presents a significant physical and mental challenge. Sai...

  As Alex is now ICC Rear Commodore for the West, we are closely involved with events and activities organised by ICC throughout the year. He recruited Maeve and Louis Keating to help organise the Christmas lunch. For years it had been held in Kinvarra, Co Galway, but the last time they ran out of space and several people had to be split from the group and seated downstairs. That didn't go down well. Besides we like to mix it up a bit and experience new venues around Ireland. Maeve and Louis Keating were enlisted to help out, as we wanted to move the event further south to capture some of the folks who might have not come north in a while. They booked Gallagher’s Restaurant in Bunratty, Co Clare. It turned out to be a brilliant venue. It's just down the road from Bunratty Castle and the Folk Village, which had a magical holiday vibe. It was packed with Christmas celebration groups and children visiting Santa (there were six of them in the Village).  We had a nook all to oursel...